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WHO, Roll Back Malaria partnership launch initiative to contain artemisinin-resistant malaria

The WHO and Roll Back Malaria partnership (RBM) on Wednesday launched an initiative to "stop a form of drug-resistant malaria from spreading from Southeast Asia to Africa, where millions of lives could be at risk," Reuters reports. "It would cost about $175 million a year to contain and prevent the global spread of the artemisinin-resistant parasite which first emerged along the Thai-Cambodian border in 2007, the United Nations agency said," according to the news agency (Nebehay, 1/12).

13 Jan 2011

Washington Post examines theories on climate change's potential impact on disease spread

The Washington Post examines the debate among scientists over the impact climate change might have on the spread of infectious diseases, and the potential for a rise in the number of tropical diseases in the U.S. The article describes how extreme weather conditions, such as flooding and drought - "thought to be linked to the warming of the oceans and to changes in the precipitation cycle" - can create ideal conditions for waterborne disease.

13 Jan 2011

PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases features Inovio’s Chikungunya DNA vaccine

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leader in the development of novel therapeutic and preventive vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced today the publication of a scientific paper highlighting positive results from Inovio's multi-antigen Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) DNA vaccine in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

12 Jan 2011

Floods may become a healthcare challenge, warns the AMA

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has issued warnings to the Queensland health authorities to prepare for the rise of illnesses and injuries caused by the floods.

10 Jan 2011

Insecticidal nets do not always work against diseases transmitted by insect bites

Longlasting insecticidal nets yielded an important breakthrough in malaria prevention, but this does not automatically mean they always work against diseases transmitted by insect bites. Against the transmission of kala azar disease in India and Nepal they did not have an effect. This was reported by an international group of researchers, led by Marleen Boelaert of the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, in the reputed British Medical Journal.

5 Jan 2011

Trial to eliminate deadly Dengue begins

The 12 week programme costing $18 million named ‘Eliminate Dengue’ has commenced. Mosquitoes bearing a special bacteria would be released into the wild around Cairns as part of a trial to rid the area of the insects that carry Dengue fever.

4 Jan 2011

Met-FISC complex formation critical step in juvenile hormone signaling pathway

Just as raging hormones are part of the process of a child's maturation through the teen years to adulthood, juvenile hormones, a group of insect isoprenoids, play an important role as butterflies, fruit flies and mosquitoes transform their body structures as they molt from larva to pupa and then adults.

28 Dec 2010

EPA to clean up vector-breeding site to eliminate dengue epidemic

To control the severe dengue epidemic, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said the first priority is to locate diagnosed patients and eliminate virus-carrying mosquitoes, the vectors of Dengue fever, and called on all people to clean up mosquito breeding sites.

23 Dec 2010

Study provides evidence on prevalence of two separate mosquito species which carry malaria parasite

In notable back-to-back papers appearing in the prestigioous journal Science in October, teams of researchers, one led by Nora Besansky, a professor of biological sciences and a member of the Eck Institute for Global Health at the University of Notre Dame, provided evidence that Anopheles gambiae, which is one of the major mosquito carriers of the malaria parasite in Sub-Saharan Africa, is evolving into two separate species with different traits.

21 Dec 2010

Researchers show how malaria parasites infect red blood cells, impede blood flow to organs

Although the incidence of malaria has declined in all but a few countries worldwide, according to a World Health Organization report earlier this month, malaria remains a global threat. Nearly 800,000 people succumbed to the mosquito-borne disease in 2009, nearly all of them in the developing world.

21 Dec 2010

Reuters looks at cost-effectiveness of pursuing malaria vaccine, eradication

Reuters examines the effort to create an effective malaria vaccine and asks: "[I]s the vaccine - and the global health community's aim of completely eradicating a disease that kills a child every 45 seconds - really worth the money?"

15 Dec 2010

Bacterium used to tackle Dengue fever

This January Australian scientists will start deploying a strange bacterium called Wolbachia pipientis in an attempt to halt disease transmission by mosquitoes especially Dengue fever. They are targeting the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits Dengue. Dengue is a viral disease that leads to high fever, severe muscle and joint pain and can also be fatal.

9 Dec 2010

Health experts, mobile service providers discuss potential for mobile health in Africa at summit

"Some 80 health professionals and telecom operators [met last week for the mHealth Africa Summit] in the Ghanaian capital Accra to explore ways to use mobile phones for better healthcare delivery," IRIN reports in an article that details a variety of successful projects relaying health information through cell phones in Africa. The article describes how mobile phones are being used in Africa to educate populations about HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and improve maternal health, as well as to track medicines and other health supplies, including mosquito nets.

7 Dec 2010

Research highlighting treatment for pediatric SCD, malaria presented at ASH 2010

Red blood cells have the very important role of carrying oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body; therefore, disorders that affect RBCs can have a significant impact on quality of life. Sickle cell disease and malaria are two common RBC diseases that affect a significant portion of the U.S. and global populations. Sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder that causes deformed and dysfunctional red blood cells, affects an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 Americans, while malaria affects approximately 1,500 Americans annually and 190 to 311 million people worldwide.

6 Dec 2010

UIC scientist focuses on potential targets to inhibit malaria transmission

University of Illinois at Chicago researcher Dr. John Quigley will describe a promising new approach to blocking malaria transmission during the American Society of Hematology's annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

6 Dec 2010

Health experts discuss how to prepare for future dengue immunization programs

AsiaOne examines how groups are working to prepare policy makers for the availability of a dengue vaccine in the future, following a three-day meeting on the virus held in Singapore this week (Chan, 12/3).

4 Dec 2010

MicroRNA linked to mosquito blood digestion and egg development identified

Each year, dengue fever infects as many as 100 million people while yellow fever is responsible for about 30,000 deaths worldwide. Both diseases are spread by infected female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which require vertebrate blood to produce eggs. The blood feeding and the egg development are tightly linked to how the mosquito transmits the disease-causing virus.

2 Dec 2010